This Sunday, ‘The Simpsons’ does something it’s somehow never done before

When you're “The Simpsons” and you've been around for 27 seasons, and close to 600 episodes, doing something new is almost impossible. For the most part, the show's better latter-day episodes(*) mix and match stories the show has done a half dozen times or more in the past, finding amusing and/or poignant variations on old themes. Last week's Maggie subplot, for instance, featuring the triumphant return of Spider-Pig, had more than a little in common with the Oscar-nominated “Simpsons” short “The Longest Daycare,” while the delightful “Cue Detective” episode from two weeks ago was cooked up from ingredients used in many past food-related episodes.

This Sunday night's episode, however, is remarkable, in that it finds a way to do something “The Simpsons” has never done before:

A real Halloween episode.

The “Treehouse of Horror” trilogies have been a “Simpsons” tradition going all the way back to season 2, but they explicitly take place outside of continuity, allowing for Homer's head to be turned into a donut, or Lisa and Bart to gain super powers to fight evil alongside Lucy Lawless, or alien invader Kang to be elected president because Americans won't vote for a third party candidate.

“Halloween of Horror,” on the other hand, is a regular episode of the show that just happens to take place on Halloween. Written by Carolyn Omine and directed by Mike B. Anderson, it's primarily a Lisa and Homer story, where Lisa's so traumatized by her first visit to Krustyland's annual Halloween Horror Night that the family has to take down its traditional “Everscream Terrors” lawn display of spooky holiday decor. Bart is dismayed, and Homer is just plain worried, since his attempt to give his little Lisa a quiet and reassuring October 31 is disrupted by a trio of vengeful “pop-up scum,” whom Homer accidentally got fired from Apu's pop-up Halloween store.

There are elements of “Straw Dogs,” slasher movies, and even “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” – with a musical number where Bart unfortunately learns how adults celebrate the holiday – and all of it actually feels creepier than a typical “Treehouse of Horror” story because it's “real.” No, nothing bad is actually going to happen to Lisa or Homer, but the creative team and Yeardley Smith make you feel her terror much more acutely than in the Grand Guignol style of the “Treehouse” tales. And like in an actual horror movie, the laughs become a more welcome tonic because the peril seems genuine.

There are, as you might expect, various winks to the show's usual Halloween tradition, including a meta exchange between Homer and Flanders about how “Treehouse of Horror XXVI” will be airing next week, but for the most part, “Halloween of Horror” plays things straight. Even with the enduring popularity of the “Treehouse” episodes, it's amazing the show's never tried a more traditional Halloween episode before. There have been many episodes set on Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, Easter, and Independence Day, not to mention “Simpsons”-only holidays like Whacking Day and Love Day. October 31st certainly didn't lack for coverage on the show, but this approach is one they for some reason never tried before.

Oh, I’m looking forward to seeing this episode. Sure, the quality is up and down, but the world with the Simpsons in it is so much better than the world without it.

By: Mr Woo

10.16.2015 @ 7:27 PM

Not really, it’s pretty much the same. The Simpsons aren’t important anymore.

By: lelisa13p

10.16.2015 @ 8:18 PM

Sounds like we’ll also get a Treehouse of Horror, too. YAY!

Even a less than stellar episode of The Simpsons still ranks in the top 10% of what’s on TV. There’s always a nugget. :o)

By: lelisa13p

10.16.2015 @ 8:20 PM

Mr Woo, that’s how I feel about SNL.

By: clapton

10.18.2015 @ 6:44 PM

@Mr. Woo: The Simpsons may not be “important” anymore, but it’s still often quite funny. Which is all I care about.

By: Priscilla QC

10.20.2015 @ 5:36 PM

“Even a less than stellar episode of The Simpsons still ranks in the top 10% of what’s on TV”

That is objectively not true anymore chickie-pie. Have some respect

By: lelisa13p

10.20.2015 @ 6:29 PM

No respect for calling me Chickie-pie. Sheesh.

By: GuyITC

10.16.2015 @ 5:50 PM

I’ll probably check it out because of this post. I guess they aren’t doing a great promotion job because this is the first I’ve heard of it.

FYI, for those of you who might have enjoyed my comments here for a few years, me and a friend started a TV podcast this week after Alan and Dan split up (and Hollywood Prospectus at Grantland as well).

I’d really appreciate some feedback and word of mouth from you guys, especially the long time posters.

You guys have good chemistry and personality, good voices too. But it sounds like you’re both on cell phones. Fix that and you may have a winner. Nice job, man. I have no idea how one goes about promoting a podcast on a grassroots level, but having Alan on to discuss his newish book would surely help. Cheers.

By: HistoryofMatt

10.16.2015 @ 8:55 PM

Whacking Day remains one of my favorite all-time episodes, ever.

The sight of the rotund, clumsy, usually buffoonish Homer Simpson with the agility and reflexes of a ninja, taking out fake snakes that pop up in his backyard made the little kid I was when it originally aired squeal with peels of laughter.

It’s all my friends and I could talk about the next day in school.

Sheer perfection. Peak Simpsons.

By: bigtruck

10.17.2015 @ 1:38 AM

I know the feeling. The first five or six seasons were basically the soundtrack of my childhood. The school day after a new episode (did it always air on Sunday? Seems so…) was largely spent exhausting each great line through repetition. When all my friends went to summer camp without me one year, I would recap each new episode onto a cassette tape and mail it to them.

We were well into high school by the time the Who Shot Mr. Burns cliffhanger concluded, and our discussions about whether the show was possibly, conceivably, losing some of its brilliance is the closest thing I have to a coming of age experience.

By: Oaktown Girl

10.17.2015 @ 5:06 AM

Thanks for the head’s up!

By: Joshua

10.17.2015 @ 8:11 PM

Did FXX do an Every Simpsons Ever marathon this year?

If no, then why not?

That would have been a great tradition that would have brought huge ratings.